$2.4B Venetian casino debuts in China

Wednesday

Aug 29, 2007 at 2:00 AM

MACAU — With the crash of a champagne bottle against a gondola, Macau's Venetian casino opened yesterday, dwarfing anything in Las Vegas and big enough, its operators say, to shift the magnetic north of the gambling world to this small city in southern China.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MACAU — With the crash of a champagne bottle against a gondola, Macau's Venetian casino opened yesterday, dwarfing anything in Las Vegas and big enough, its operators say, to shift the magnetic north of the gambling world to this small city in southern China.

American billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam inaugurated the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai by smashing a bottle of champagne against a gondola, which will float down one of three indoor canals, compared with only one at the Venetian in Las Vegas.

Casinos like the Wynn and Adelson's Sands have led this small city in southern China past the Las Vegas Strip as the world's most lucrative gambling center.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Adelson wants to take it a step further with the 10.5-million-square-foot Venetian.

Hundreds of visitors streamed under the golden dome just inside the entrance yesterday, treading on thick champagne-colored carpet and taking in the fresco paintings on the wall.

Adelson hopes the complex will transform Macau from a gambling pit stop for Chinese tourists to a vacation and business convention destination, where visitors shop, watch shows — and roll the dice.

"Today is the beginning of what has been a dream of mine for some time — to reproduce the capital of entertainment in Asia for Asians," Adelson said yesterday at a news conference.

Macau's casinos are currently scattered across the territory, a peninsula connected to mainland China and two outlying islands by a reclaimed strip of land called Cotai.

Adelson said his Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai is the cornerstone of what will become a concentrated resort area he calls the Cotai Strip.

Las Vegas Sands claims the 10.5-million-square-foot Venetian — twice the size of the Las Vegas original — is the largest building in Asia and the second largest in the world.

Boeing Co. claims it has the world's largest building — a plant in Washington state.

The Venetian boasts what it claims to be the world's largest gaming space of 550,000 square feet, housing 3,400 slot machines — with room to expand to 6,000 — and more than 800 gambling tables.